When I studied many years back one looked towards the educational institution, where you were planning to register to ensure that the qualification was worthwhile and would be recognized. There was often the view held that qualifications from certain institutions would almost guarantee you perfect success in the workplace. Some educational institutions were preferred to others by prospective students, especially for certain fields of studies.
But I ask whether those days are over now?
When employing certain skill sets the prospective employee’s institution of study is not even considered that critically anymore. It is not that important if your basic finance qualification came from University X or University Y. It is almost accepted that the standard of similar qualifications from similar institutions, will be similar for the post being applied for in many cases.
Obviously, this generalization does not apply to every case, but does apply to the majority of cases.
Where did the founders of Microsoft, Facebook or Bitcoin study?
This question can be asked of many of the business gurus that have made a difference in our world, such as Lisa Wang, Mark Cuban, Eric Ries, Joel Stern, etc.
When someone has told me they have an MBA these days I don’t ask them from where? I am not that in awe of such a qualification. I recall how my late mentor in my career, told me to re-think my strategy, when I shared with him that I was considering doing an MBA back in the 90’s.
He showed me an article in a German newspaper, where they indicated that there were plenty MBA’s in the German job market then, but very few of these could make a real difference in the business world.
So “How does a candidate differentiate” themselves then, from the rest of the applicants in the market place?
In 2008 Mark Cuban already questioned the significance of studying at one institution only.
I believe that, if you are passionate about what you are doing, then you will gain as much knowledge about it and will look further than your formal institute to gain the advantage.
When I worked in the music industry during the 80’s, it didn’t matter to anyone else in the industry, who your music teacher was or how recognized they even may have been. What did matter though, was what talent you had and what you could do with your instrument(s).
This is how I believe it should be, whatever your chosen career path or profession is. It doesn’t matter who lectured you! It doesn’t matter if you got a distinction or only passed the exam with 52%.
What talent can you offer to your prospective employer?
In my personal view, many of the formal institutes arguably are readying their students to pass the examination papers. Not enough emphasis is being placed on how ready the student is for the real world’s market place! I include the school system in this criticism, which critique is made with respect to the people working in it.
Let me illustrate what I mean by way of the following example.
When I interviewed potential candidates for a position (in finance) that I was trying to fill, I would not ask questions like “how well did you know Excel or a particular software package?”. Instead I would ask them to relay to me what they liked about the program and then what they didn’t like about it?
From the discussion that followed, I would quickly know whether they were working as a master in the package or a novice. From points they raised I would easily gauge, if they were merely scratching the surface of it.
I was looking for people that were going to make a difference to the business and not merely complete the basic fundamental tasks.
When I was looking for a strong management accountant,
I would ask things like “which costing conventions they knew and which ones they would recommend for my business”?
It didn’t matter much to me, if they had studied the formal auditing route or the practical business route in getting to their qualification goals.
What mattered for me in the business, was whether (they knew) when to apply LIFO vs when to apply average costing rather than FIFO.
Most academics want to concentrate on the IFRS interpretation of which one gives the fairest value for a business.
Great information, if you were contemplating selling the business or submitting an official business return to the tax authorities. But in most cases I had been in, I was running a business and wanted to do that more efficiently and FIFO was not the answer for me. The most successful company I ever had the pleasure working for used LIFO. Can you think of why?
All the conventions, of course, have their place and all should be used in a business at different times for different reasons. A fact that most accounting software houses haven’t picked up on yet, I might add.
I personally liked the CIMA method of obtaining a qualification applied back then. One wasn’t given a text book to study. A long list of potential text books to read were given, but you were asked to read widely on the subject material.
This meant that the exam questions could come from many potential angles and would not favour a particular thought process. The examination questions therefore were not based on a particular author’s or guru’s view of the material, but rather on the practical solutions in a given situation.
I remember one of my questions was to improve the queue theory in a police station’s charge office efficiencies. You may ask what this scenario has got to do with business, but in my mind, it has plenty to do with it and it was a real situation to improve upon.
How would you have faired in my interview questions?
Could you have added insight into my business or would you have displayed that you only know the favoured theories?
I would encourage all students who really want to grow and create a career in finance to look further than their academic institution for the real answers in the field.
It has now become a world where we can challenge the conventional thinking so depended upon by the staid and unadventurous academics of the past. We can now find other ways to break the paradigms.
That is one of the reasons I designed my Logic-models.
It was done to obtain a different perspective on my business and to ascertain if they made logical sense in giving advice to others or running my business more efficiently. I wanted to share my business insights with my colleagues in a practical way and not from an academic perspective. A way that would be easy for them to understand and utilise.
These models are not difficult to follow and don’t require hours of study, but I spent and still do many hours thinking of what they depict and how it applies to my business. (Yes even now). When I challenge what the models show me and whether my thinking is correct or not, is when I get real insight into what is happening in my business.
The Logic-models help me formulate strategies for the business’ problems that I face on a daily basis. They also show me, what impact my decisions that I want to make, may have on the business and its future survival which surely must be my goal in my business.
We have seen too many cases of late of financial reports that show a healthy business (on listed stock exchanges) and then we find later that the IFRS has been applied theoretically and the business suddenly can’t survive!